LETTER xxni THE TOMB OF QUEEN ESTHER
153
objects remain, and the antiquity of one of these is not
universally accepted. The tomb of Queen Esther and her
uncle Mordecai is the great show-place of Hamadan, and
is held in much veneration by the Jews of Turkey and
Persia, who resort to it on pilgrimage. The Jews are
its custodians.
TOMB OF ESTHER AND MOBDEOAI.
This tomb consists of an outer and inner chamber,
surmounted by a mean dome about fifty feet in height.
The blue tiles with which it was covered have nearly all
dropped off. The outer chamber, in which there are a
few tombs of Jews who have been counted worthy of
burial near the shrine, is entered by a very low door, and
the shrine itself by one still lower, through which one